Does Mothercare care?

[sammid3]

Our friends Fraser and Roz sadly lost their baby son five minutes after he was prematurely born. It seems that Mothercare kept the deposit on goods they had ordered in readiness for his birth. Maybe contractually/legally they did nothing wrong. On a moral level I am beyond livid. Is this normal? I am struggling with this.

[JimmyCorkhill]

That's incredibly sad. I'm so sorry for your friends. I agree that legally Mothercare have been in the right but they could easily have bypassed the rules for these exceptional circumstances.

I suppose someone close to them could contact the head office, or possibly tweet/facebook to get attention. Unless this will upset your friends more.

It is perfectly normal for you to be so angry. It's a crap response from Mothercare.

[micah]

Nope, they really don't care.

I'd kick up a fuss and threaten to go to papers/watchdog etc. bet they find their morals then....

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Given people have been able to alter orders fairly late in the day with regards to picking up etc I don't see how refunding deposits would cause an issue when stuff is in delivered, un opened and presumable able to be re sold.
The last 24/48 hours when they are out for delivery is the only time it becomes a problem surely?

How tragic for your friends and their family

[MysticMugBug]

Disgusting. They obviously don't care like so many other companies don't either

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello there,

Mothercare have given the following response for us to post up:

'Dear sammid3,

'We are extremely sorry to hear of your friends' loss. Mothercare will do everything we can to support the family and will of course refund any deposit immediately. Please do contact our Customer Care team as soon as possible on 0344 875 5111 or via email on [email protected].'

[micah]

Told you they'd find their conscience if you made a public fuss.

Wouldn't want people thinking they really don't care about their customers.

Can you tell I had a crappy experience with them too? Although nowhere near as bad as your poor friends.

Mothercare, if you're reading this you may want to look at the "companies you boycott" thread. You're on there too for your appalling customer service.

[Jessica4414]

I am sorry to hear such terrible news. As a previous employee at mothercares HO I would like to stand up for them. I know that they work extremely hard as a company to support parents and children, and try to do what's best in every situation. Unfortunately store managers do have to make decisions on a day to day basis, and unfortunately on this occasion the decision has not matched the views of the company as a whole, which as you can see has been rectified by their HO.

[westcountrywoman]

How awful for your friends. Of course, I'm sure they wouldn't want to, but if they (or someone on their behalf) completed the payments, took delivery of the goods and then returned within 14 days for full refund as per distance selling regs, Mothercare would have to refund in full. Which makes it all the more odd and sad that they wouldn't refund the deposit.